PACIFIC RIM (2013)

In Pacific Rim, director Guillermo Del Toro (Hellboy & Pan's Labyrinth) presents us a Godzilla meets Transformers flick of monumental proportions.

In the not-too-distant future, a race of monstrous aliens called Kaiju (Japanese for monster) attack earth through an underwater portal in the depths of the Pacific ocean. They wreak havoc on several coastal cities across the globe laying persons & property to waste in the typical Hollywood style assited with a good dose of CGI. After finding that the conventional weapons are futile against these monsters which appear evolving into ever more dangerous creatures, humans respond by building their own combat force of monstrous robots called Jaegers (German for Hunters). Every Jagger is required to be piloted by two humans since a single human is incapable -mentally & physically - of controlling this colossal machine.  The brains of the two pilots are connected through a technology called neutral drift which in turn operates as a singular command unit controlling the Jaeger.

What follows is a series of visceral action set pieces in which the Jaegers take on the Kaijus on land, water and even air through traditional combat styles that includes fisticuffs, swords and some heavy duty artillery. The success of these movies depend a lot on the level of visual mastery which could make the viewer go WOW. The story and the characters are at best props that aid in unravelling the carefully planned action set-pieces though Del Toro does try valiantly to build certain emotional depth to each of the characters.

While Del Toro is no Cameron or Whedon here, it helps that he is definitely not Michael Bay either. He definitely knows the quality of output that is required to engage the viewer without making a mere noisy mangled mess of the visual effects through stunts where one never knows who is fighting whom to what effect. The action here, while loud (which puts me off personally) is well designed, executed with panache and captured well which engages the viewer (especially in IMAX 3D). A rousing score accentuates the action on screen though, at times, it gets drowned in the melee of the wreckage around.

It may not score big on the front of story or characters that touch your heart or a plot that engages your grey matter. It is designed to be and remains a delectable eye-candy for action junkies who prefer some well executed action setpieces on some CGI wizardry and to that extent, is very satisfying and fun watch. Guilty pleasure, if one may prefer to call it so ....

A GOOD ONE-TIME WATCH !

LOOTERA (HINDI) (2013)

Lootera is the second directorial venture of director Vikramaditya Motwane after his brilliant debut in Udaan which was a coming-of-age tale set in the small town of Jamshedpur. In Lootera, he captures an intense, yet tender romance set in the early years of independence.

The story - an adaptation from O. Henry's short story "The Last Leaf" - starts unfolding in rural Bengal in a place called Manikpur where Paki (Sonakshi Sinha) is the daughter of an affluent zamindar who dotes on her. Pakhi is a spunky independent spirit and nurtures ambitions of becoming a writer. We are also introduced to Varun (Ranveer Singh)  who enters the zamindar's household as an archeologist interested in the site around a local temple. Soon enough, we see them getting attracted to each other in moments which are captured in beautiful frames of mirth, subtlety, saturated silences and some sparkling background score. Although, the zamindar who is an adoring father agrees to their union at once, the lovers are forced to confront some overwhelming odds which push them apart. The rest of the movie narrates the choices they make and their consequences. While the first half of the movie is set in rural Bengal, the second half moves to the snowy locales of Dalhousie.

Lootera takes us back to a long forgotten terrains of an old-world romance and charms it's way into the hearts of the viewers effortlessly, makes them feel deeply for the leads and gradually grows on the unsuspecting viewers much like an overnight beard. This comes as such a welcome whiff of fresh breeze after the routine and inane drivel which passes off as eternal romance in Bollywood.

Sonakshi Sinha lights up the screen and carries the various shades of Pakhi beautifully while Ranveer Singh is brilliant in a part that requires him to be soft-spoken, subtle and intense. Both have given their best-ever performances and consequently, their characters become very real, relatable and hook the viewers to their journey ahead. They are amply supported by a competent supporting cast.

Amit Trivedi has provided the movie with wonderful sounds and a brilliant background score which is almost a breathing character as any in the movie.

This is a work of art that is flawlessly crafted in all its exquisite details just like the sculptures populating our temples of yore & is near perfect in its execution. Vikramaditya Motwane, in only his second film, comes across as an assured auteur in full command of his medium and art. He has spawn a masterpiece by brilliantly combining the best of all the elements, be it top-notch performances from his leads as well as supporting cast, captivating cinematography which captures the landscapes with a natural flourish, lilting songs and a winning background score.

Take a bow Vikramaditya Motwane.. If Udaan was his take-off, here he is soaring to great heights of excellence.

Lootera is a wonderful journey into a long-lost world suffused with subtle sensibilities, sparkling romance, undying love, mirth, chivalry, intriguing dilemmas and searing pain. It is journey that would stay with us long after we are back from it.

This movie is a delectable treat for every cinephile and deserves being treasured for times to come ! One can only hope and pray that it achieves commercial success too which will encourage more such attempts by auteurs of the ilk of Vikramaditya Motwane. May his tribe multiply and flourish .... AMEN !

NOT TO BE MISSED ...MUST WATCH !

BARAN (FARSI) (2001)

The story is set in contemporary Iran which plays an unwanted host to millions of Afghan refugees who've fled their homeland to escape the atrocities of a rising Taliban. The protagonist here is Lateef, an Iranian construction worker in his late teens. He works at the construction site supervised by Memar who is a friend of his dad. This puts him in a privileged position of light labour involving purchase of groceries, managing the site kitchen and serving tea to the workers. He is lazy, selfish, haughty and hot-headed. The site also employs several Afghans who do the heavy lifting, albeit for much lower pay, thanks to laws which forbid employing Afghan refugees.

Early into the movie, we get to know that Najaf, an Afghan worker at the site, has met with an accident and has broken his leg which leaves him unable to continue working at the site. However, Najaf is the only earning member of his family and his income from the site is absolutely essential to support his five kids. The next day, Soltan, a fellow Afghan worker at the site, brings along a young kid and introduces him as Rahmat, Najaf's son and requests Memar to allow the kid to work in place of the injured Najaf. Though Memar is skeptical about the apparently slender Rahmat's capacity to cope with the hard labour at the site, he eventually agrees to test him out. When Memar's initial doubts are confirmed by Rahmat's inability to cope with rigours of the work, he swaps the tasks of Rahmat with Lateef. Lateef is frustrated with this turn of events and sees Rahmat as the source of his misery. He makes several attempts to get back at Rahmat with little effect. One day, Lateef accidentally discovers that Rahmat is actually a girl in the guise of a boy and it is her pressing need to support her family after Najaf's accident which has forced her to resort to such desperate means. This realisation brings a paradigm shift in the mindset of Lateef and thus, begins a transformation which sees his persona turn into one filled with compassion, altruism and above all LOVE ! The rest of the movie captures this transformation in all its poetic splendour and is best experienced by the viewer in person.

Baran means Rain in Farsi and it is no coincidence that the female lead is also named Baran (which we get to know towards the end of the movie). She doesn't utter a single word in the entire course of the movie. Yet, it is her silences, punctuated by her pregnant gazes, an almost not-there smile and even a footprint of her shoe being filled by the downpour captured beautifully in the final moments of the movie, which convey volumes that the best written words would've failed to convey.

Baran is a movie that works at many levels. At the most apparent level, it paints an exquisite portrait of a tender romance through the most subtle of brush strokes. At another level, it is a coming-of-age tale where we witness the gentle blooming of a beautiful persona rich in empathy, compassion, sacrifice and love from what was once a coarse and gritty seed which was  self-serving, vain and egotistical. I find the transformation of the protagonist here resonates significantly with similar changes in Pieta (Korean) and Tsotsi (Afrikaans) (both reviewed earlier). As in the other two, once again, a tender love is what heralds the beautiful transformation here.

At yet another level, this movie captures the plight of the refugees effectively even as it brings out the difficulties confronting a forced host. I found, Memar, the site supervisor here also represents the dilemma of country like Iran which is forced to bear the burden of millions of refugees even as it struggles to cope with its own problems which are by no measure, small. Memar may be a hard taskmaster and also pays the Afghan refugees lesser pay than their Persian counterparts. But he is also empathetic to them and recognises that their hard work deserves much more, which he cannot pay for he is  constrained by his own resources as well as the law which forbids employing any refugees.

The director Majid Majidi is a noted filmmaker from Iran and has captured the movie with a minimalist colour palette which is in complete harmony with a movie pregnant with several subtleties.

Halfway through the movie, a cobbler makes the following philosophical observation for the protagonist's (& perhaps for us too) RUMI(?)nation -

"From the hot fire of being apart, 
Comes the flame that burns the heart."

This meditative movie is at once, very real, poignant, lyrical, bittersweet and a deeply personal experience.

This movie, in the best traditions of meditative practices, gradually grows on the viewer only to strike deep roots and lingers on for a very long time after the viewing. 

BRILLIANT .. MUST WATCH !!




P.S. - You can catch this movie on UTV WORLD MOVIES channel where it is telecast regularly.

TSOTSI (AFRIKAANS) (2005)

Tsotsi is the moving story of transformation of a young African thug who leads a small gang of ruthless, amoral and cold blooded looters who don't wince twice to kill anybody in their daily pursuit of looting for living.

On one such occasion, Tsotsi, operating alone, shoots a lady and steals her car only to find her three year old in the back seat. A befuddled Tsotsi brings the kid back to his shack and thus, begins his transformative journey culminating in a self-discovery of, the hitherto unknown, better sensibilities within him.

The transformation of Tsotsi, while not dramatic, is deep and reminds one of the more recent Korean movie Pieta which captures a similar transformation. The movie is highly effective, thanks to authentic portrayals by the cast.

This gripping and deeply engaging movie was the winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language movie in 2005 and one tends to agree that it is indeed a deserving winner.

A MUST WATCH !

 

CHOP SHOP (2007)

In Chop Shop, director Ramin Bahrani (of Man Push Cart, Goodbye Solo fame) captures a coming of age story that is poetic & deeply engaging.

Chop Shop is the story of young Alejandro - Ale, as he is addressed by all - a young teenager trying to eke out a living in the outskirts of New York. He survives by doing sundry jobs to earn a living until he is employed in an automobile garage in a poor neighborhood. The owner of the garage also allows him to live in a shack inside the garage. Soon, Ale is joined by his elder sister Isamar who is in her late teens. She comes to live with him and starts working in a food van. Ale shares a warm relationship with her and also his close buddy Carlos.

Despite spending all his childhood in penury, Ale is an optimist & aspires a brighter future for both of them where they would own a food van in which his sister could cook. He strives extra hard to enhance his income by doing sundry jobs like bootlegging DVDs, helping the local garage owners to strip down parts of stolen vehicles, vending candies in trains and even occasional petty thievery. He saves every possible penny and is helped in this venture by his sister who contributes her own bit to realise their shared dream.

At one point, he is shocked when he discovers what she needs to go through to earn some more. However, he avoids confronting her and strives extra hard in the hope that she wouldn't have to toil any more than necessary. In his deep caring for his sister, he seems more a parent than her brother.

This is a movie which captures their joy despite their abject poverty, aspirations and dreams for a better future, struggles to earn a living and to realise their dreams, sorrow on seeing their dreams shattered and above all, their resolute optimism that stokes their hope for a better tomorrow.

The movie which has almost no background score sparkles in its sparse and starkly realistic setting. The actors, almost all of them amateurs, have given performances which gel so well in the narrative, that one feels that they far outshine their much more illustrious stars.

This is a movie where the director is less of a director and more of a keen observer of events unfolding in all their details in their natural order & pace. As in his other movies, on this occasion too, he successfully captures the lives of the oft-forgotten underdogs who populate the margins of the society.

This movie is at once, subtle, deep and makes a meditative connection with the viewer without resorting to any kind of melodrama or cliches.

A MASTERPIECE ....MUST WATCH !

RAANJHANAA (HINDI) (2013)

In Raanjhanaa, director Anand L Rai returns to familiar territory of unrequited love which he'd explored with some success in his previous movie Tanu weds Manu. As with that movie, this movie also set in the Hindu heartland, in this case, a vivid & colorful Benares. Here too, the hero played by Dhanush falls head over heels for the lady Sonam Kapoor.

Dhanush plays Kundan, a Tamil Brahmin born & brought up in Benares whose ancestors had moved to be priests in a local temple. As a boy, he comes upon Zoya, the daughter of an affluent Muslim professor and it is eternal love at first sight for him. After several years of persistent pursuit, nay stalking, umpteen slaps and a slashed wrist, Zoya finally relents and reciprocates only to find the age old cliche of differing religions being raised and her parents pack her off to study at Aligarh initially & therafter, at JNU. While at JNU, she falls in love with the idealist student leader Abhay Deol. However, Kundan  remains obsessed with his love for her and awaits her return and when she returns, he is devastated to know that she has not only forgotten about him, but is also in love with someone else.

The first hour of the movie sails through smoothly with many a light moment set in the earthy & colorful milieu of Benares capturing the city in all its rustic charm. However, as soon as the movie moves out of the Benares to Delhi & beyond and tries to dabble in issues such as campus politics and hot social issues in news, the narrative feels contrived & comes unstuck.

Despite its several flaws, the movie remains eminently watchable for its positives. For one, Rai has made this movie  with lot of heart and national award winning actor Dhanush, making his Bollywood debut, has given a sparkling performance and has carried the movie through on his slender, yet very able shoulders. Sonam Kapoor looks good and has an elegant screen presence, but still has a some way to go in terms of performance especially in the more emotional scenes. The leads are ably supported by the stellar cameos by Mohammad Zeeshan Ayub as Kundan’s best friend Murari and Swara Bhaskar as Bindiya, Kundan’s childhood friend who eternally pines for him. The movie benefits to a great measure from A.R. Rahman's music which blends nicely with the proceedings and some splendid cinematography which captures the city of Benares in all its colourful glory.

FLAWED .. YET, DEFINITELY WORTH A WATCH !

EASTERN PROMISES (2007)

This thriller directed by David Cronenberg shuns the usual Hollywood staple of slam bang action and kinetics to present a deeper study of the characters that populate its scape. The movie is set in London amidst the ruthless Russian Mafia that also includes sundry Eastern Europeans.

The movie begins with graphic scenes of a throat slitting and an under-age girl in labour spasms who eventually dies after her childbirth. We are then introduced to its main characters - Naomi Watts (Anna) as a second generation Russian midwife working in a city hospital who attends to the delivery and grows an attachment to the dead teen mother and her newborn daughter, a brilliant Viggo Mortensen (Nikolai) as the trusted driver-cum-bodygard-cum-enforcer of the Mafia patriarch, Semyon, as well as the best friend to his violent & volatile son (Kirill). 

Anna finds a diary from the belongings of the dead teenager which opens a can of worms with revealed connections to the Russian Mafia. More than a whodunnit, what Cronenberg presents here is a close glimpse of the people involved in the underworld, their seemingly superficial normalcy, shifting trusts and ruthless conduct.

The movie also features a singular stunt sequence in a public bath/sauna which is captured in what I would just state as a raw and real brilliance.

Brilliantly acted by Mortensen & Watts, this beautifully crafted, brutal & taut thriller would remain in your mind like a tattoo for times to come !!

A VERY GOOD WATCH !!